Our Story

Wherever we are, we are connected to the sea. The ocean provides us with the oxygen we breathe and the climate that sustains us. We need a healthy ocean for our own survival.

Plastic pollution is killing wildlife, devastating oceans and threatening the health of our planet. Plastic represents a disconnection. It’s a material designed to last forever that we often use only once. Poorly managed plastic leaks into the sea. The ocean is downhill from everywhere.

Through education that inspires participation, Take 3 is building a global movement of people who are connected to the planet.

How can we stop plastic pollution from killing wildlife and suffocating our planet?

In 2009, two friends set about answering this question. Marine ecologist, Roberta Dixon-Valk and youth educator, Amanda Marechal developed Take 3 – an idea where a simple action could produce profound consequences. Joining forces with environmentalist, Tim Silverwood, the trio publicly launched Take 3 as an organisation in 2010.

Take 3 pieces of rubbish with you when you leave the beach, waterway or…anywhere, and you have made a difference.

The Take 3 for the Sea movement was born.

Whether you’re in mountains, forests, deserts or cities – you need the ocean. And the ocean needs you.

Take 3 is leading a movement of people who are connected to the planet to remove plastic pollution from the environment and support measures to prevent waste and pollution.

Our education programs in schools, surf clubs, communities and online focus on inspiration and participation. We believe everyone has the power to take action and create positive change, no matter where they are.

Take 3 supports the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and advocates for a circular economy future. Our ‘throw away’ society fuelled by overproduction, overconsumption, single-use materials and poor waste management is damaging our planet irreparably. The current system is not sustainable.

The circular economy (opposed to the current ‘take-make-dispose’ linear model) is renewable and regenerative by design. Technical nutrients are recovered to create new materials while biological nutrients are processed to regenerate agricultural and natural systems. The circular economy model is built entirely on renewable energy and aims to design waste out of the system.

Learn more about the circular economy here and the United Nations SDGs here.

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Our Inspiration

The Turtle

Turtles are truly ancient beings. The oldest known fossil is 120 million years old, making them one of the oldest creatures to inhabit the planet. Turtles represent the continuous connection between land and sea. Their lives are a constant cycle of nesting on land before travelling the seas for thousands of kilometres. Female marine turtles return to their own birthplace when it is time for them to lay their own eggs.

Plastic pollution is devastating marine turtles through entanglement in debris and contamination of their food chain. When soft plastic enters the sea it has striking similarity to jellyfish, a main food source for turtles. Too many turtles are innocent victims of our careless consumption of plastic.

We owe it to the sea turtles to make plastic pollution a thing of the past. Take action now.